An Unseemly Romance
by KKRiddle
Summary: This would have been the best moment of his Hogwarts existence, but it wasn’t, he had loved Hermione Granger, and still did, but he knew that she’d only get hurt, and he paid the sacrifice to wipe her tears, and that sacrifice was his heart.


**_A/N- Ayyy guys (: This is in response to the angsty/romance challenge by dracos girl101. I hope you enjoy this story and remember I own nothing but the plot, except for the qoute itself (:  
qoute- _**a teardrop is insignificant in a pool of water, but it can touch the soul as it runs down someone's face

* * *

_There are so many things in this world you would never have expected, but they happened anyway. It's hard to handle those ripples of changes, because they're new, unheard of, seemingly wrong and you've never really seen anything like it. So instead of embracing this change, learning to adapt to it, and moving around it. You stop dead, you stare, you point, and you whisper, and Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy couldn't have been less prepared for any of it._

"Move it, Malfoy," snapped a very angry Hermione Granger as she ran into him in haste to get to her class on time.

She stood staring at the back of his platinum blonde head with an annoyed expression on her face, "Well," she asked impatiently.

Hermione rolled her eyes, he was just standing there in the middle of the corridor as students made their way to get past him, 'So typical of Malfoy,' she thought angrily.

She refused to be like everyone else and move out of _his _way. Malfoy was no better than she was, no matter how much he spouted off about being a pureblood with money, power, and connections, and how she was nothing but a little mudblood! She would make _him_ move!

She tapped her foot, and glanced at her watch, she only had a couple of minutes left to get to Transfiguration, "Oh my God, Malfoy! Just get out of the way!"

Suddenly he whipped around with such a cold look in his eyes it seemed to have frozen Hermione to the floor, she stared aghast at his expression. He just looked so out-of-control, his grey eyes were bright with rage and hatred, and his back stood stiff, and his composer was rigid. She recognized the look on his face, because she had gotten the same look on her face when she had walked in on Harry and Ginny the night before, it said he wished to be anywhere but here.

She noticed the note that was clutched in his hand, he snarled at her and stashed it away in his pocket, Hermione assumed that's what he had been busy doing while he was just standing there in the middle of the hallway holding up traffic.

"You know, Malfoy. You should really read your letters on your own time, you're disrupting everyone else by just standing here!"

Malfoy narrowed his eyes, "Like you're doing now, Granger?"

Hermione gaped at him and that's when she noticed that his eyes almost seemed to sparkle in the light that danced across his face from the flamed torches on the wall.

"Malfoy, are you... are you _crying_?"

Malfoy closed his eyes, and suddenly tears were streaming down his face.

Hermione, horror stricken, looked around the corridor and breathed a sigh of relief, everyone was already in class.

'Bloody hell, I'm late!,' she thought, but she realized some things were more important than school, and right now that something was Malfoy.

For some reason she cared, and she had no idea why. This was Malfoy, but then she understood why. This was _Malfoy_, and Malfoy doesn't cry. Malfoy doesn't have feelings, all he does is make other's cry, but Hermione knew that at some point everybody cried, because everyone had feelings no matter how cold they were.

She gently grabbed his hand and led him to an empty classroom, he looked down at her, "Why are you doing this, Granger," he asked, his voice hoarse.

She hesitated before answering truthfully, "I... I honestly have no idea, but what I do know is that you're not doing so well, so want to tell me about it?"

She watched as another tear cascaded down his cheek, and then he spoke in a harsh, biting tone, "Look, Mudblood I _never_ would have pulled you to the side and tried to help you! If I saw you crying, I more than likely would have laughed and made some rude comment, so what the bloody hell are we doing in this damn room?"

Hermione sat up straight, her eyes narrowed, "Well that's the different between you and me, Malfoy. You're a narcissistic asshole, while I actually care about other people, and also," she then added in a much softer tone, "a teardrop is insignificant in a pool of water, but it can touch the soul as it runs down someone's face."

Malfoy regarded this for a moment and then he glanced back at her his eyes looked defeated, his expression weary and tired. Hermione then gasped, for a mere second he reminded her of Harry.

He who constantly looked so much older than the young age of seventeen, who always seemed to have the weight of the world in his shoulders.

Her heart went out to the boy who had done nothing but ridiculed her from the moment he had met her. It was then that she realized just how compassionate the human heart could be, that she would reach out and take the hand of those who had done nothing but pushed her away.

Malfoy stared at her, his grey eyes penetrating into her brown ones. He groaned and then ran a hand threw his disheveled blonde hair, and then said in a small voice, "What do you want to know?"

"What made you like this," she gestured at the heart broken look in his eyes, his unkempt hair, and his willingness defeat.

He glared at her, "I'm trusting you, Granger."

She considered this for a moment and then a small smile graced her lips, "Who would have thought they'd ever see the day?"

Malfoy smirked, "I never did."

She let out a quiet chuckle, "Well, here it is."

Malfoy glanced around, "It feels like any other day."

Hermione stopped she stared at Malfoy with a confused expression on her face, "It does, doesn't it?"

Malfoy nodded, "It shouldn't though," his voice spoke volumes.

They lapsed into silence, Hermione understood what he was getting at, this shouldn't feel normal. Them being together that is. It should feel infuriating and if anything at all it should at least be awkward!

"I guess we should mark it on the calendar," she then said, and then it was Draco's turn to let out a small laughed.

As the silence embraced them again, Hermione remembered what brought them here, "So, Malfoy, you're trusting me, with _what _exactly?"

Malfoy exhaled in a low hiss, as the dark look in his eyes became even more prominent, he spoke in quick breaths, his tone low and harsh, "Look, Granger, I know you think my father's an evil bastard..."

Hermione snorted at this, but one look from Malfoy silenced her.

He went on even more violently than before, "But he wasn't always like that. I remember a time when I could run up to him, hug his knees, and he would pick me up and throw me in the air. He'd catch me, and tell me silly things like how to never doubt his love for my mother and I. How I could be anything I wanted to be, how I was my own person, and how I was the luckiest little boy, and no harm would ever come to me!"

He broke off and closed his eyes, "How stupid was I to ever believe such things?"

Hermione stared at him, she couldn't believe that Lucius Malfoy had ever been so nice. Even the idea of Lucius being loving to his own son was quite preposterous, and that spoke volumes about the kind of man, Draco Malfoy's father was.

She walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "You weren't stupid, Draco."

He opened his eyes at the sound of her calling him by his first name, she smiled sadly at him and said, "Every child deserves to hear those things from their parents, those who don't are most unfortunate, you should consider yourself lucky. You had a better childhood than most kids these days," Hermione then thought of Harry, who was one of the unlucky ones.

He pushed her away with a look of disgust on his face, "But it was all lies, all of it! I never had a choice, Hermione!"

She staggered backwards, "What are you talking about?"

He laughed bitterly, "My life was mapped out before my mother even learned of my existence!"

Hermione gasped as she realized what he was getting at, "I'm sure your father didn't..."

Draco cut her off with a sneer, "Sure my father didn't _what_, Hermione? Didn't mean to push me down on my knees on my seventeenth birthday in front of the _**Dark Lord**_?"

At Hermione's small squeak, he smirked at her, "You do remember who my father is right? Lucius Malfoy, a _death eater_?"

She nodded weakly, he went on, "My seventeenth birthday should have been the best day of my life, it was the day I finally became a man in the wizarding world's eyes, and it was also the day I confessed to my father, against my mother's protest, I had no wish to follow in his footsteps. I figured he'd understand, because after all, it was he who told me I could be anything I wanted to be."

Hermione bit her lip and then asked, "What happened?"

Draco appraised her for a moment and then said, "He laughed at me, he just bloody laughed. He then asked if I was serious. I was so confused, I didn't understand why he could just accept it, but he was Lucius Malfoy and all he had ever cared about was himself and his master! I told him I was, and you want to know what he did, Hermione? He whipped out his wand and crucio'd me. I've never felt more pain in my life than I had in that moment."

"I screamed and screamed, my mother begged him to stop, I couldn't see anything through my all the tears that were streaming down my face, I could barely hear her. I vaguely recall my father telling me if I ever said anything so ignorant and foolish that was remotely close to that again, I'd get so much worse than that. I was delirious for days, and one night my mother spoke to me, she said that the only way to live, was to live in that way that my father did, but what life is that, Hermione?"

Hermione gripped the sides of the desk she was leaning against, tears were streaming down her face, "It isn't, Draco."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Well it has to be, for my mother's sake anyway."

Hermione gasped, "What?"

He ripped out the letter and thrusted it towards her, she took it and read it over, and when she was down she then ripped it to shreds with such a feeling of disgust she couldn't breathe.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Granger?"

They stared as the bits and pieces of the letter floated to the floor, she looked up and met Draco's eyes, "It doesn't have to be this way, Malfoy. We can help you."

Draco stared at her for a second and the spoke in a soft voice, "Don't help me, help my mother."

Hermione nodded as she walked towards him, "We will."

He looked down at her, "Who's we?"

She smiled gently, "The Order of The Phoenix."

"Why would any of them help me?"

Hermione took a step back, "You're right, why would anybody help a spineless, hypocritical, heartless, bastard like you?"

Draco glared at her in outrage, "But I'm not! I'm not fucking heartless! Otherwise I wouldn't be in this bloody class room with you! I wouldn't have told you a God damn thing, because if I was heartless I wouldn't have gotten that letter, because I would never have defied my father! I've been a coward before, I've be bias, and I can be a right git sometimes, but I've never been heartless, Granger..."

He broke off, "Why the bloody hell are you smiling?"

She then said, "That's why they'll help you, Draco. They'll see that you're not the horrible person you claim to be, they'll help your mother, Draco. I promise."

He shook his head, "They won't understand."

She shook her head in disagreement, "They will, I promise."

Suddenly tears filled his eyes and sank to his knees, Hermione rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him, "I promise, Draco."

* * *

Weeks later, Hermione and Draco found themselves in the very same classroom, "She'll be safe there, no one will be able to find her."

Draco nodded, relief was apparent in his expression, "Thank you, Hermione. For everything."

She smiled at him, and waved it away, "It's no problem, Dumbledore's a very forgiving man."

Draco laughed, "I noticed he's about the only one!"

Hermione feigned a hurt look, "Gasp! What about me?"

Suddenly Draco became very serious and his grey eyes darkened, he stalked forward, Hermione froze as his arms wrapped around her, "Draco? What?"

She was cut off as his lips claimed hers, she was only disoriented for a moment, until her natural instincts took over, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer, Draco smirked against her lips.

Hermione felt nothing but his lips against her own, she heard nothing but the sound of her heartbeat against his, she knew of nothing but Draco Malfoy.

They had spent days taking up each other's time with long and deep discussions about almost anything and everything. It was like they could never run out of anything to say to each other. They had so much in common, and for once Hermione felt the need to be more than Harry and Ron's best friend, she felt the need to be loved, to be held, to be kissed in the way Draco Malfoy was doing at this very moment.

And still Hermione wanted more.

When Draco pulled away they were both breathing heavily, "Oh," Hermione gasped weakly.

Draco took her face between his palms and he peered deeply into her eyes, his tone was passionate and almost desperate, "You, Hermione Granger, are the only one that cared enough to listen, and because of that I will never be able to thank you enough. You saved my mother's life, not the Order, but you."

He then took her in his arms and hugged her closely, he tucked her head under his chin, and closed his eyes, and for a moment Draco didn't want to let her go, and Hermione didn't want him to.

* * *

"Why can't you just bloody tell them, Hermione?"

Hermione shot her boyfriend a dark look, "Oh, if you think it's just so easy, why don't you walk up to them and say, 'Hey, boys, guess what, I'm dating your best friend. I know you didn't even know we were friends, or that I've been in the Order for about five months now? Did she tell you? I guess by the looks of complete betrayal she didn't, oh sorry!"

Draco rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand and pulled her to him, "All the more reason you should tell them now, the longer we wait, the worse it will be."

"Draco," Hermione wined, "They don't know how much you've changed! They won't understand."

Draco kissed her forehead, "We'll show them."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well, we'll have a heard time doing that considering you're still walking around the school with a stick up your ass, and you're still hanging out with those bloody idiots!"

Draco pushed her away, "They're my friends, Hermione!"

Hermione shot up with disgust in her eyes, "They're everything you're trying to get away from!"

Draco sat down, "They're everything I've ever known. I know they've fucked up, and I know they're wrong, but they're still my friends, and they've always been there when I needed them. They're no Gryffindors Hermione, but neither am I. I'm still the same Slytherin I've always been, the only things that's changed, is how I feel about you. I'm never going to get along with Scar-head or Weasel, be realistic Hermione."

Hermione remained unmoved, "So, in other words, we're unrealistic?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders, Hermione narrowed her eyes, "If you know, they're never going to accept us, then why in Merlin's name are you wanting me to confess about us?"

Draco sighed, "I hate pretending," he answered.

Hermione snorted, "Why," she asked, "You did it for years," she snapped coldly.

Then she stopped dead when she realized what she had just said, she knew she had crossed a line, and when Draco's eyes flashed dangerously, she instantly regretted it.

"Draco, I'm sorry," she began, but Draco's cold eyes silenced hers.

"Well, then, how about we forget that there was anything to pretend about?"

Hermione stared at him, "Draco, what are you saying?"

Draco sneered at her, "Oh, come on, you're not the brightest witch of our age for nothing, Hermione! you know exactly what I'm saying."

He turned to walk from the room, but not before he glanced back and added, "And it's Malfoy,... Granger."

* * *

Draco entered the Great Hall the next morning to find everybody staring at him, he narrowed his eyes as everybody then broke out into whispers, and began pointing at him, "What in the world..."

He made his was to his usual seat at the Slytherin table only to find it was occupied, "Move, Zabini, you're in my seat."

Blaise looked up at him, "Not anymore, Draco."

Draco stared at him, "What?"

Blaise glared at him, "You're no longer welcome to sit with us."

Draco glanced around the table, and he realized they all had angry expressions on their face, "And, why Zabini is that?"

Blaise stood up from his spot, his wand aimed at Draco's chest, rage clear in his eyes, "Because, Malfoy, you're a filthy blood traitor, that's why!"

He looked up to see Snape walking towards them, he sighed and looked around, his eyes landed on Pansy Parkinson, "Pans'?"

She shook her head as tears welled in her eyes, "You lied to us, Draco."

Draco nodded, "Crabbe, Goyle?"

They both looked away, "Fine, Daphne?"

She appraised him for a moment and then said, "Betrayal's a high price to pay, Draco."

"Zabini, Put away your wand..." ordered Professor Snape.

Draco then interrupted him, "There's no need, Professor, I was just leaving!"

He spun around, and his eyes searched the Gryffindor table for her, she was sitting as far away from the other's as possible, and she was eating with the bloody first years! She had bloodshot eyes, and that's when Draco realized she had told them, and suddenly Draco understood what she had been trying to say.

As he looked around at all of his peers, he realized they'd never understand, and she was right. His eyes met hers, and he knew he loved her, and he knew it was so wrong in so many ways, but he couldn't help it, he loved Hermione Granger, and he knew with out a doubt she loved him just the same, and that was when Draco suddenly whipped around and climbed on top of his house's table.

"Draco," Pansy seethed, "What one earth are you doing?"

He ignored his house's cry of outrage, he looked to the Professor's, "A moment please?"

Dumbledore gestured for him to continue with twinkling eyes, Draco then spoke, his voice filled with brutal honesty, "There are so many things in this world you would never have expected, but they happened anyway. It's hard to handle those ripples of changes, because they're new, unheard of, seemingly wrong and you've never really seen anything like it."

"So instead of embracing this change, learning to adapt to it, and moving around it. You stop dead, you stare, you point, and you whisper," he paused as he met the eyes of all the students in the Great Hall.

"It's true, I fell in love with Hermione Granger, a muggleborn. I'm Draco Malfoy and I went against everything I believed in to be with the girl who saved my mother's life. I know I'm a Slytherin, and that my father's a death eater, but I can't help but love that girl sitting over there with her head held high and tears in her eyes. She's everything I want, and I know she's too good for me, and that we come from two different sides of the enemy lines, and I also know you will never accept me, because of that," he then turned to his house, "And you'll never accept her."

Draco then glanced back at Hermione and as he watched the tears stream down her face, he finally understood what she had said at the beginning of all of this, 'A teardrop is insignificant in a pool of water, but it can touch the soul as it runs down someone's face.'

Draco never wanted to see her cry again, and he knew that because of him, that she was crying now, and because of everyone else, the tears would never stop, so he gave in.

He looked around at everyone, and his eyes grew cold, a smirk appeared on his lips, "So I say this, it never happened, I fooled Hermione Granger, Scar-head's best friend into falling in love with me," he then turned to Hermione, and instead of looking into her eyes, he looked at the table in front of her, "So how does it feel, Granger? To not know everything, because if you did, you would have realized that everything I ever told you, every kiss, every touch, every I love you, was a complete and utter lie?"

Hermione bit her lip from crying out, and he went on, "This is the end of the ultimate Slytherin revenge."

He smirked at all of the Gryffindors, "Joke's on you."

He hopped down from the table as the Slythrin's erupted into cheers, and the other houses cried in outrage.

He felt the claps on his back and he grinned back and at all the smirking faces, and he finally took his place in his usual seat, and he knew if any of what he said had been true, this would have been the best moment of his Hogwarts existence, but it wasn't, he had loved Hermione Granger, and still did, but he knew that she'd only get hurt, and he paid the sacrifice to wipe her tears, and that sacrifice was his heart.

* * *

Weeks later everything had gone back to normal, as if that night had never happened, as if they had never heard of Hermione and Draco.

She found him alone one night in the same empty class room where it all had taken place," You're a bloody liar, Draco Malfoy," she said coldly.

Draco nodded, "I know, and it helped that the whole school is so gullible"

Hermione turned away from him, "I bet it did."

She then made to leave, but not before she glanced back at him, "Was it worth it, Draco?"

He smiled sadly as he met her eyes, "Was it worth it too see you happy and laughing with all your friends, instead of by my side with your head hung in shame? Then yes, Granger, it was worth it."

She bit her lip, "I'd say thanks, but I'm not."

Draco shrugged, "Fine, by me."

She then began to leave again, but this time Draco spoke, "And, it's Malfoy, Granger."

She laughed bitterly, "Fine, by me," and then she was gone, and it was then that Draco realized that what ever they had was too.

* * *

**A/N- So how was it? I had a little trouble here and there, but I'm proud of how it turned out. I love Dramione's, and I'm sorry I couldn't put the together... but that was a apart of the challenge, plus I've always figured Hermione deserved better, and I have a feeling Draco knows that (:**


End file.
